


A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner

by kozumekenmakun (dearestloverboy)



Series: a trick and a liner [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: College!AU, M/M, coffee shop!AU, kuroo and bokuto say bro excessively!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-15 21:43:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7239667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearestloverboy/pseuds/kozumekenmakun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Akaashi is a regular at a cafe nearby. When the fall season rolls around, the cafe sees a new worker there: Kuroo. Akaashi immediately notices, and Kuroo notices Akaashi.<br/>With a multitude of cheesy pick up lines later, the two end up study-buddies, and then, something maybe more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. can i get a latte with a side of you

**Author's Note:**

> the first chapter is probs really fast!! when i first start writing something my scenes tend to be kinda short but i hope its fine! They get better, don't worry. regardless, this fic isn't supposed to be very long. anyways, enjoy!

Akaashi prides himself in being a very attentive person. He doesn't stress over details, per say, but rather he just notices the little things. For example, he notices the fact that a different milk was used in his usual latte order. He also notices when more pumpkin spice is thrown into his pumpkin spice latte. Those things don’t make a monumental impact on his life. He doesn't die when he drinks 2% milk for once instead of whole milk. Excess pumpkin spice never ruins his day. But it's just little things he can't help but appreciate when it happens.

So it's no surprise that Akaashi notices when a new barista arrives at his favorite café. But it's really not hard to miss. A messy bedhead and a sleazy looking grin isn't hard to miss among neat hair and brighter, friendlier smiles. His voice is different, too; baristas here have this chipper and higher pitched voice. His was deeper and richer, smoother, too. But, like the other things he notices, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't make a big impact on him, especially a negative one.

At least, that’s what Akaashi thought.

It's a cozily chilly autumn day when Akaashi first sees the new barista. With an absence of classes, he decided that a little studying at the café would, in no way, harm him, if anything. His book bag is hung on his shoulder, slightly heavy with the weight of his laptop and some folders with notes. Today's mission was typing out his notes for better understanding and use later, as Akaashi's formatting while writing notes is a goddamn mess. It's at least legible, but disorganized as fuck.

Akaashi takes his place in line, eyes flicking around to various things in the café. The deep orange bean bag chairs, the high metal tables matching with high metal chairs, the array of pastries on display, and underneath are rows of various drinks. It's all things he's seen probably hundreds of times now, but its something to keep himself busy as he waits.

Suddenly, something he hasn't seen a single time slips quickly into his point of view.

A messy mass of black hair.

The owner of the messy hair goes from the cash register to the station to the right of it, where blenders and espresso makers stand, waiting to be used. While to the new eye it seems this person has their life in control doing their job, to Akaashi, he can see that he's messing up a little. He adds too much ice to a frappuccino mix, and curses under his breath but blends it all together in the blender anyways. Briefly, Akaashi wonders if the customer will notice the colder and icier taste to their drink due to this guy's mistake. After a few more seconds of blatant staring, Akaashi snaps out of it, sternly telling himself that that's _fucking rude._ He turns his head away, and occupies himself with looking at the designs for this month's gift card stock. Cute little trees with smiley faces and bright red birds are on most of the cards for the autumn season.

Only a few minutes later and Akaashi is at front of the queue, and messy hair is at the cash register. They meet eyes, and the lopsided grin immediately spreads upon his face. Akaashi's face doesn't even shift, however. Even though he might find this guy perhaps a bit attractive.

"Pumpkin spice latte, please." Akaashi requests, shaking his head when asked if there's more he'd like to order. After handing money over to pay for the simple order, and receiving his change back, the barista heads off. Akaashi feels it deep in his soul that he'll taste something a little different in his latte today.

* * *

 

His latte tastes sweeter, he notices, as he takes his second sip of the drink. He doesn't pay too much mind to it, because it doesn't matter, and his fingers go back to quickly typing away, his eyes flickering from his notes to his laptop screen. He plays around with fonts, colors of text, text sizes and general layout such as bullet points and borders. Anything really, to make it look so much nicer and easier to find specific information. As he does so, he gets the chance to repeat back important information, as he types out only relevant and necessary details onto the digital piece of paper.  
  
As Akaashi goes for his third sip of his latte, he notices another thing about the latte. This time, its not really a taste thing. On the side of the cup facing him, there's something written in a messy scrawl. Akaashi picks up the latte, warmth seeping into his fingers as he tries to decipher the text.

_"This latte's hot, but you're hotter."_

His eyes narrow and he looks towards the counter, where, unsurprisingly, the new barista is, leaning against the counter. His head rests in the palm of his hand, his lopsided grin somehow more smug than before. He winks at Akaashi. He snaps his head back to his laptop.

* * *

 

The next time Akaashi sees the flirty, messy haired barista is right before a class of his. His shoulder bag is digging into his shoulder, almost painfully so. With haste he takes a place in line, checking the time at intervals of 10 seconds each. Akaashi got a shitty headstart to his day, beginning with his dumb ass sleeping through his alarm. And because he pretty much never does that, he has no backup alarms set and the snooze option on his phone is disabled. He was lucky to wake up with any extra time to even shove his ass into a pair of pants. Luckily, the line is short. He comes face to face with the new barista, Kuroo, pretty quickly.

"Pumpkin spice latte," Akaashi requests. "… and that's it," He adds, not wanting to waste time. Kuroo raises an eyebrow at his rush.

"Got somewhere to be, pretty face?" He asks. Akaashi gives him no answer as he hands over the money, telling him to keep the change as well.

Kuroo watches as Akaashi then walks over to the pickup counter, his head tilted down to look at his phone screen as he waits. He can't stare for long, as there's more customers to serve. He makes sure, however, that he's the one who slides the drink to Akaashi.

"Pumpkin spice for Akaashi," Kuroo calls out, though not too loud. His hand is curled around the cup as he pushes it forward. Akaashi looks up and grabs the cup, and for the faintest moment their hands touch.

Kuroo thinks of it as an improvement, and Akaashi doesn't even notice that it happens.

* * *

 

"Next time, I'm writing my number on his cup." Kuroo hums to Kenma, his coworker. The blonde looks at him with blank eyes, unimpressed.

"I don't think he'll notice it," Kenma comments, eyes drifting away as he ties his apron on. Kuroo leans back on the counter where blenders and espresso makers stand.

"He noticed my pickup line," He counters, and despite not seeing Kenma's face, he knows he rolls his eyes.

"Then he probably won't call the number." Kenma retorts, not missing a single beat. He wipes down the cashier counter. Kuroo takes it as a hint to start cleaning the other counters, too. He does a shit job, though, but the table tops aren't too dirty to begin with.

"You wound me so, Kenma," Kuroo wines like a kicked puppy, and Kenma doesn't bother replying after that. After a bit more cleaning up is done, chairs taken off table tops and napkins and such refilled, the doors are open and the official business day begins. People slowly trickle in as time drags on, though because it's a Saturday, there is a lack of early morning customers keeping the place much more busy. Instead, it's just one or two people every half hour, occasionally more.

Scattered around at random times, regulars come in. A black haired boy with intimidating and narrow dark blue eyes comes in and gets iced coffee and sits at his usual spot near the bathrooms. Later, a fiery orange haired-boy comes, gets 2 muffins and sits with the guy at the bathrooms. Swoopy chocolate brown hair and flirty eyes is next, who seems more interested in talking to anyone cute or attractive than for a drink of caffeine.

Next in line for regulars is pretty eyed Akaashi. Though, this time, he doesn't come alone; he's not a regular, but Kuroo knows exactly who he is. White and black hair in streaks like a zebra and bright yellow eyes is in tow with Akaashi, brightly and animatedly talking to him. After a few steps into the café, yellow eyes meet Kuroo's.

The reaction is immediate.

"BRO!!!!"

"DUDE!!!!!"

"HEY HEY HEY!!!!!"

The normal bustle around the café pauses, due to the loud hooting coming from the barista and customer. All eyes stare at the two, who seem unfased and don't even notice the attention now placed upon them. Akaashi sighs heavily, now deciding to trail a bit behind his loud-ass friend to try and look as if he wasn't associated with him in any way, shape or form.

He makes it to the counter, and he and Kuroo start loudly talking. At this point, everyone else goes back to their previous conversations. The two of them have quieted down enough to warrant no more attention. Akaashi stands a little closer to Bokuto now.

"Hey hey hey! Didn't know you worked here bro!!" Bokuto hoots once more. "Whoops, sorry, forgot to tell you," Kuroo replies, his shit-eating grin on his face. Akaashi stares at a package of mints, awkwardly. "It's no bro-blem." Bokuto replies.

"What do you want to bro-rder, bro?" Akaashi feels his soul wishing to tear apart in a thousand pieces and eject from his ass. Why the fuck is this happening. The excessive use of the word bro in every sentence now is absurd and astonishing."Is broffee on the menu?" Bokuto retorts.

"Sorry, bro, no longer available," Kuroo says in mock disappointment. This is true hell, Akaashi thinks.

"One hot brocolate, then. Extra brocolate." Bokuto requests instead. Akaashi then feels Kuroo's eyes on him, and he looks up from the mints.

"Oh, pretty eyes, didn't know you were here," Kuroo all but purrs. Somehow, this asshole went from disgusting bro to some weird and smooth cat. It was ridiculous.

"Pumpkin spice latte, please." Akaashi says, and for a brief moment it looks like Kuroo's heart's _bro_ ken.

"Shit, bro, you know each other?" Bokuto interrupts, and Kuroo nods. Akaashi shrugs.

"He's the cutie I told you about," Kuroo answers. "Didn't know you knew him, too."

"He's my study buddy!" Bokuto's face, although already pretty bright with a smile, gets somehow brighter. There's a pause in the conversation as Bokuto realizes something.

"Dude. Bro. Y'know how you needed help studying?" Bokuto starts, and Kuroo nods.

_"Why don't we all study together?"_

Akaashi feels his soul ejecting from his ass in that moment.

* * *

 

Whilst Akaashi didn't agree to being the tutor of two bro-centric assholes, he still did it anyways. It would be too much work to reject Bokuto and then deal with the subsequent emotional swings that came with the rejection. So he accepted. He thought that if he could handle Bokuto alone, he could probably handle both Kuroo and Bokuto at once. Not easily, but he'd be able to.

Currently Akaashi sat at his dorm room, which he shared with Kenma from the café. Akaashi knew full well that Kenma worked with Kuroo, and was glad the two of them shared a weird bond where Kenma knew not to bring up that he was friends with Akaashi around Kuroo. Plus, the two of them gladly were able to keep to themselves without the worry of keeping conversation or constantly trying to bond. Quietly playing games together or studying in the same room together was more comfortable than trying to force conversation anyways.

Kenma was out, currently. Akaashi didn't bother to ask where, because it didn't really matter, but he assumed it was to the local Game Stop or somewhere similar. It was the season when new games were being released like no damn tomorrow, anyways.

Akaashi had a calculus book open in his lap, currently studying for an upcoming test in the class. He was glad he was able to understand the material pretty well, as the math involved was stupidly complex. Many of his classmates were struggling, and he was one of the only few who at least had some sort of idea what the fuck was happening. From nearby, on his pillow, his phone vibrated with a soft little chime as a notification lit up the screen. He considered just taking a break to fiddle around with his phone for a bit, or to just retire studying entirely. He turned his head to look at his alarm clock. The blinking numbers read that it was 6pm.

He realized that he had been studying for at least an hour, and had accidentally got ahead in the material, so he closed the book with a soft thud and put the book away on his desk. He flopped down onto his bed, and picked up his phone. The notification was from a text message. He opened his phone and looked at the messages. With a frown it seemed he was placed in a group chat, with Bokuto and some unknown number.

**Group Chat: Bokuto and Unknown Number**

**From: Bokuto**  
hey hey hey!!! welcome to the official study group chat!!  
  
  
He also notices that he got a text from the unknown number alone, too.

 **From: Unknown Number**  
hey angel eyes B) its kuroo from the café

Wonderful, now Kuroo has his number. It could be worse, Akaashi tells himself with a sigh.

It could be _so_ much worse.


	2. unplanned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter i think is a bit longer than the first, so enjoy! :>

Kuroo started his job as a barista as a means of getting some extra money. He didn't have a job before, and his parents didn't send him money all that frequently. He needed some way of getting money that was steady and reliable, and really, working seemed to be the only option.  
  
"Are you even paying attention?" A soft, annoyed voice took Kuroo from his thoughts. Kenma was wiping down the tables at the end of the day, also  placing any chairs he could on table tops, so cleaning the floor would be easier later. Kuroo was leaning against the take out counter, his head resting in his palm. His job of wiping down the counters in the work area forgotten completely.  
  
"Mhmm," Kuroo hummed, and Kenma sighed softly.  
  
"I get it, you're gay, but can you have your gay thoughts sometime else?" Kenma requested, tiredly. Kuroo glared playfully.  
  
"You're just jealous that _you_ couldn't make a move on pretty eyes," Kuroo retorted, standing upright. He picked up his wet rag and folded it haphazardly. Kenma scoffed.  
  
"Because I totally want a pretty boy to glare at me after I wrote a shitty pickup line on his cup," Kenma mumbled, finishing up the last table. "Did you clean the cashier counter?"  
  
"He did not glare at me, and …." Kuroo glanced at the cashier counter for a few seconds. "… _Yeeeeahh_ …. I did." He drew out his words.  
  
"You came here to work for money and you can't even work." Kenma huffed under his breath, going behind the counter to finish up what Kuroo barely started. "At least wash out the containers."  
  
Kuroo sighed heavily and dramatically. He trudged over to the empty blender containers and began to thoroughly wash them out, as Kenma had requested. Though he couldn't stay complaining forever -- while cleaning, he could remember the cute guy he saw today at his first day of being an official barista.

God, he was some good shit.

 

* * *

 

 

By some stroke of goddamn luck, Kuroo got his phone number.  
  
While Kuroo was originally planning to give Akaashi's his by writing it on the side of his latte cup, his best bro Bokuto came in and saved the day. All it took was Bokuto planning to become study buddies with Akaashi, and then making a group chat for them. And because Kuroo can see the numbers of the people in the group chat, within a few taps of his phone he was able to save Akaashi's number and send him a quick text.

 **To: Angel Eyes**  
hey angel eyes B) its kuroo from the café

 **From: Angel Eyes**  
Hello.

Kuroo frowned a little. While he did get a reply from Akaashi, it was awfully lack luster in reply. Not only did it appear that Akaashi was one of those people who typed with proper grammar and punctuation, but he didn't seem like one to really care for casual conversation. Maybe I can change that, Kuroo thinks to himself.  
  
**To: Angel Eyes**  
watcha up to beautiful ;)

 **From: Angel Eyes**  
Can you refrain from calling me beautiful, Kuroo-san?  
  
**To: Angel Eyes**  
so u like angel eyes better? aight then angel eyes  
 

 **From: Angel Eyes**  
Whatever makes you happy, Kuroo-san.

That's fucking cute, Kuroo thinks. He screenshots that message as something to look at when he's sad. A little ridiculous for such a plain old message, but Kuroo loves it regardless.

After screenshotting the message, he sends it to Kenma and Bokuto.   
  
**To: brokuto**  
god bless u   
  
**To: kenma kat**  
i told u i could get his number ;)

* * *

  
  
**From: we study memes - brokuto**  
hey hey hey when do u memers wanna study ???  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 **From: we study memes - Angel Eyes**  
I'm available on Saturday at noon.  
  
**To: we study memes**  
sat @ noon sounds gr8  
lets meet at the café

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
sounds memetastic bro  
  
**From: we study memes - Angel Eyes**  
why must you two do this.

Kuroo grinned. Akaashi was just so damn adorable in text. Even though the two of them only shared a few texts, Kuroo's heart swelled with each adorable message.

And because of those cute lil' messages, it put Kuroo in quite the chipper mood. He walked into the café that day, bright and early, grinning. There was a little pep in his step, and some talk in his walk. As he and Kenma silently cleaned down the café and got everything in order for the day, Kenma clearly could tell that there was some improvement in his cleaning ability. Not only did he not clean half-assedly, but he didn't have to be told this time around what to do after finishing one task.  
  
"Impressive, you can finally behave like every other adult with a job," Kenma congratulates after unlocking the door to the café and flipping the sign on the door from "closed" to "open". Kuroo grins lazily.  
  
"What can I say? I'm a natural." He hums in reply, standing upright and throwing his towel inside the bucket of towels nearby.

" _Natural my ass._ " Kenma mutters, hauling off the towel bucket to the back supply closet.

* * *

 

The work day on Friday is uneventful, especially because Akaashi didn't show up. Despite the lack of Akaashi in his life that day, the prospect of seeing him on Saturday was a good enough motivation for him. He made a grand total of 2 mistakes the entire day. Something about having a cute guy's number does shit on you.

Kuroo even cleans up decently well at the end of the day, and Kenma is once more impressed with his quality work. Though, Kenma doesn't hesitate to remind him that he's still fucking shit at cleaning. He's just slightly better now. But still absolute shit.

When Kuroo arrives at his dorm, his roommate is absent in the room. Though, it's usually like that. Iwaizumi only stays once a week, and the rest of the time he's over at his boyfriend's place, probably fucking the shit out of his swoopy brown hair. Whatever he's doing, it doesn't matter to Kuroo. If he's able to jack off without needing to curl under 50 blankets and be silent, he's not complaining.

Kuroo flops down onto his bed. The springs whine and bounce Kuroo up a little after he falls, and Kuroo sighs. Today was a good day.  
  
Inside his pocket, his phone vibrates. Kuroo whines at the prospect of moving after he had just walked thirty minutes from his job and he barely got 3 minutes to lay in bed. After heavy debate and staring at the ceiling for 15 seconds, he groans as he pulls out his phone. The screen shows a message from the study group chat.

 

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
heyheyhey kubroo hook me nd akaash up with some discounts for coffee

 **To: we study memes**  
bruh I barely have worked there 4 like a month  
how am I gon get discounts 

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
cause u work there period duh

 **To: we study memes**  
kenma works sats so ill sweet talk him ;)

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
ur the best bro

 **To: we study memes**  
u kno it

 **From: we study memes - Angel Eyes**  
What's the point in a group chat if all you two ever do it message each other?

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
u could join in!!!!!

 **From: we study memes - Angel Eyes**  
How would I join in on a discussion of discounts??

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
mayb u have a gift card u could use ??????

 **To: we study memes**  
yeah hook us up angel eyes ;)

 **From: we study memes - Angel Eyes**  
I'm going to be using it for myself. 

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
fucking savage akaash……

* * *

 

Kuroo woke up the next day at the bright and early time of 10 am. An impressive feat for someone who, the previous night, had fallen asleep at 2 am. Kuroo was pleasantly surprised he didn't wake up at 2 pm and completely missed the study session. His mind probably realized how important this even was and didn't want to fuck shit up.

From the time he woke up till about 10:45, Kuroo just laid in bed, tapping away at his phone. He posted to his snapchat story about how he was awake before he slept for 12 hours. He posted to Facebook that he was going to be studying with his best bro and a cutie later that day. He also scrolled about tumblr, though he didn't post anything personal about today. Instead, he just reblogged some quality memes before he decided it best to roll out of bed and put on a new pair of pants.

The following twenty minutes was Kuroo changing into several outfits before choosing one he knew was fool proof hot shit: a goddamn flannel. He made sure to roll up the sleeves, too. The ladies and the gents all know that a flannel with rolled up sleeves is some orgasmic shit, especially when Kuroo was wearing it. If this can't charm Akaashi, Kuroo wasn't sure what the fuck would.

Haphazardly he stuffed his wallet and his keys into his pockets, as well as his phone before slinging his backpack over his shoulder. In it contained only his laptop and two notebooks. If he needed any textbooks, he was sure Bokuto or Akaashi had one they could share. (He was at least 90% sure he'd be sharing with Akaashi; Bokuto forgets shit all the damn time).

By the time it was 11:20 Kuroo was walking to the café. If he walked at a faster pace than his usual strut he'd make it there early. But he knew being 10 minutes late wouldn't mean shit in the grand scale of things. As he walked, and after looking at the scenery of the university campus he took out his phone and began scrolling through social media again, this time deciding to tweet some shit. As he was finishing up a rather pun-tastic one, his phone vibrated and a notification of a text appeared in the banner towards the top of his screen.

He tapped on it, and was brought to the group chat. Bokuto had messaged it.

 

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
heyheyhey bros -- I gotta cancel :///

 **To: we study memes**  
brooooo what the fuckkkkkkkk

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
sorry brooooooo its some family shit  
next week for sure brooooo 

 **To: we study memes**  
u owe me 

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
more like u owe me ;) 

 **From: we study memes - Angel Eyes**  
If you need any help studying, you can call me, Bokuto. 

 **From: we study memes - brokuto**  
ur saying that like i will study

 **From: we study memes - Angel Eyes**  
Please study, Bokuto. 

 **To: we study memes**  
il see u at the café, angel eyes ;))

 **From: we study memes - Angel Eyes**  
See you soon, Kuroo-san.

 

No more messages were sent after that exchange. Kuroo made sure to screen shot the last message Akaashi sent before shoving his phone back into his pocket, glad to be now walking to a study date. Ohohoh, how the tables have turned, Kuroo thinks to himself.

While sad his best bro can't be there to study with him, he couldn't deny that being alone with Akaashi is a wonderful thing as well.

* * *

 

Kuroo arrives at the café first, but its unsurprising when he checks the time. He's roughly 10 minutes early, and he decides to kill some time by getting a coffee and a muffin as he waits. The queue is a bit long, but it's nothing really intense. As he waits, he immediately spots Kenma, working with precision and speed. Within 3 minutes most of his orders are complete. It's expected for someone like him to be so efficient; he's been working at the café for 2 years already.

The other one working with Kenma is a co-worker he's met only once, a tall ass newbie named Tsukkishima. His blond hair makes him stick out even more, and whenever he speaks to customers, it seems like he truly hates his job. His lips never crack a smile unless it's a sarcastic and condescending one. Kuroo doesn't like his prissy attitude much, but he does admit that it's kind of an attractive trait. Though, if Kuroo would be able to handle that while dating is debatable.

When Kuroo is at the front of the queue, he gets Kenma as his barista.

"Black coffee, no sugar, no milk." Kuroo orders simply. "And a blue berry muffin," He adds after a short moment. Kenma nods, writing his name on a foam coffee cup, without even having to ask for his name. It'd be a little sad if he did have to ask for Kuroo's name.  
  
After paying, and exchanging a few words with Kenma, he finds a seat at an empty table near to the pickup counter and the door, so Akaashi can easily find him. He places his bag on an empty chair as a way to mark it as taken, and he simply waits for a few minutes. Right as Kuroo is about to bust out his phone to play Angry Birds, the door to the café rings and in walks Akaashi. He's dressed very nicely, Kuroo notices, as usual. A dark red sweater over a white button up fits him so fucking nicely, and wrapped around his neck is a dark navy scarf. On his shoulder is a brown messenger bag that he usually carries when he's at the café to do school work.

Kuroo doesn't catch Akaashi's eye at first until Akaashi's eyes start to quickly scan the café. They stop immediately at Kuroo, and he walks smoothly over to him. Kuroo moves his bag off the empty chair and Akaashi takes a seat, setting his bag down.  
  
"Sorry for making you wait, Kuroo-san." He says, and Kuroo shakes his head.

"Nah, it's fine. I barely got here." Before their conversation can continue, he hears Kenma's soft voice call out Kuroo's name and his order, and he stands.  
  
"Feel free to go order something, Angel Eyes. No worries if you make me wait," Kuroo says, throwing in a wink while he was at it. A soft pink dusts Akaashi's cheeks.

 _Score,_ Kuroo thinks.

Kuroo grabs his drink and straw and after poking it through the small ass hole in the lid he returns to the table, and he sees that Akaashi has left to go order something. He sits down, sets his drink down and goes into his bag to retrieve his laptop. So far, so good, Kuroo hums to himself.

Briefly after Kuroo has plugged in his laptop and has logged on, Akaashi returns with his usual cup of pumpkin spice latte. He sits down at his seat across from Kuroo, and pulls out a text book from his bag.  
  
"So," Akaashi starts. "What do you need help on, Kuroo-san?"

They start with calculus, and it doesn't surprise Akaashi much that they do. Akaashi is pleasantly surprised that Kuroo is able to learn so fast, though. As Akaashi churns out practice problems for Kuroo to solve with each new topic, Kuroo gets them within 2 practice problems. He's surprised by his focus, as well. Usually when Akaashi studies with Bokuto, it takes 5 minutes before Bokuto complains of being bored and begging to do something else that isn’t learning. With Kuroo, he seems to realize that learning this shit is his only chance at being more than barista in today's society.

Though this focus deteriorates as time passes. At first, Kuroo only cracks a few flirty jokes and what not, but after switching topics, Kuroo just seems to get worse with his shitty flirting.

"Hey, Angel Eyes, can you be the powerhouse to my mitochondria?" Kuroo practically purrs, his eyes still trained on Akaashi as he highlights something his notes. Akaashi's eyes roll.  
  
"Please focus, Kuroo-san." Akaashi says with a sigh, for probably the fifth time today.  
  
"I've already focused so much on math…. Now all I want to focus on is you,"

Akaashi finally looks up, his eyes blank and he looks clearly close to giving up on trying to keep Kuroo on track. He places his highlighter down softly upon the paper.

"I'm guessing you'd like to take a break." Akaashi suggests, and Kuroo hums.  
  
"Tell me about yourself," Kuroo replies, and Akaashi looks taken aback. _Score_ , Kuroo thinks.

After a long moment, Akaashi finally speaks. "What..?"

"Tell me about yourself. Like… what are you majoring in?" Kuroo's response is instantaneous.

Akaashi takes a sip of his latte before he replies. "Biomedical."

Kuroo's eyebrows raise, and he hums approvingly. If he and Akaashi were to get married, having a hot sugar daddy sounds great.

"No wonder you're so damn smart. I'm majoring in music," Akaashi raises an eyebrow.

"You don't really look like a musician," Akaashi replies.

"I've been into it ever since I was tiny as hell. Any reason you chose biomedical, Angel eyes?"

"The field interests me, and it's not as stressful as being a doctor. I get to help people without dealing with them." Akaashi takes a small pause, to once again sip his latte.  
  
"And you, Kuroo-san?"  
  
"Hmmm?"

"Why did you chose music?"

"Oh," Kuroo smirks. "I got distracted by your beauty again." Akaashi lets out a small huff.  
  
"Like I said, I've been into it since I was young. It's always been that one thing I can never stop loving," Kuroo replies with a shrug of his shoulders. He finishes the rest of his coffee and then tears off a bit of his muffin.  
  
"Though, you can be the second thing I can never stop lovin'," Kuroo adds, without missing a single beat. Akaashi has to hold back groaning. 

They continue like this, talking comfortably about surface level personal stuff, with the occasional flirty comment sprinkled here and there. Kuroo learns that Akaashi still lives with his family, mostly to help out his mother, and he enjoys walking from place to place. Everything is close enough for him to, as well. He also learns that Akaashi hasn't really ever tried any other latte flavor or anything else on the café menu before, mostly because he doesn't want to buy something he hates and waste it. In turn, Kuroo tells Akaashi that he's close friends with Kenma at the café, having known him since he was a kid. He also says that he played volleyball in highschool, though it didn't really mean as much to him as music.

Time passes by and the two of them don't really realize it. As it does pass, people leave and come to the café, but not as many come as noon drifts to late afternoon. The two of them don't pay much attention, however, enamored more with each other than the other people in the cafe. 

"Y'know," Kuroo starts as he turns off his laptop and unplugs it. "You're like the way I like my coffee," Akaashi sighs heavily, knowing where this is going.  
  
Kuroo wraps up his laptop charger neatly and tucks it away in his bag before making eye contact with Akaashi.  
  
"Hot."

Akaashi huffs, closing his notebooks and textbook, placing them inside his messenger bag. He's now beyond used to the constant onslaught of bad, punny pick up lines. Though, he can't lie and say that they haven't lost their charm.

Akaashi's hand reaches forward to grab his pencils and highlighters, and he does so without really looking. Because of this, he fails to notice Kuroo also reaching out to grab his pencil. Their hands brush against each other and then Akaashi's hand freezes, noticing that his fingers are brushing against Kuroo's.

Akaashi feels it deep in his asshole for what's going to happen next.

"Hey Angel eyes," Kuroo purrs.

_Dear fuck._

"Did you feel that spark?"

Akaashi wastes no time grabbing his damn pencils and hightlighters and he shoves them furiously into his bag. His cheeks deepen into a darker pink color, and he feels them grow warm.

Kuroo smirks, lopsided and smug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if u ever accidentally like touch someone like accidentally touch their arm, it is always a great idea to look them dead in the eye and ask, "did you feel that spark?"


	3. its not smart to eavesdrop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay last chapter! this one is the longest, and hopefully the best. please enjoy :>>

**From: brokuto**  
so how did the date go B) 

 **To: brokuto**  
im like 10 cm closer to angel eye's dick

 **From: brokuto**  
nice

* * *

 

 **From: Angel Eyes**  
Would you like to have another study session?

Kuroo blinked, and then yawned down at his phone. He didn't really take in what the text had read, nor whom it was from. It was fucking 6 am on a Monday, could you blame him? Sleepiness was still laced in Kuroo's eyes, voice and soul. Waking up this ungodly early was something Kuroo thought he had finally escaped after finishing highschool. He started considering changing his shifts at the café before he remembered once more that he had a text.

He read it again. And again. And one more time, just for good measure, before it finally began to soak into Kuroo's brain and bones. This was a text from Akaashi, AKA Angel Eyes, and he was asking him a question. A very important one that deals with them two being alone under the pretense of something beneficial.

Kuroo blinked once more.

After staring at the message for a bit longer, he finally lifted his thumbs to reply.

 **To: Angel Eyes**  
hell yeah  
  


A simple reply that was good enough for his slow, groggy, 6am mind. Plus, what more could he say? Akaashi asked a yes or no question and a _"hell yeah"_ was more than sufficient.

Shoving his phone back into his pocket, Kuroo left the bathroom and went back to work. Kenma side-eyed him as he returned, but Kuroo paid no mind. Mostly because he was struggling to even try and remember how to make a simple black coffee.

* * *

 

That night, as Kuroo laid in his bed as per usual, he got two calls.

The first was from Bokuto, and it scared Kuroo shitless when he felt his phone suddenly vibrate as an airhorn remix of that Shrek song, _"I'm A Believer"_ blasted at the highest volume setting from his phone speakers. It startled him from his trance of watching game theory videos on Youtube, and it probably gave him some mild form of a heart attack. He swears he saw God himself in that moment that he felt his heart skip a beat in a non-romantic, life threatening way. 

After getting over his panic, he slid his thumb across the screen to answer the phone. He held the screen to his ear.  
  
"So," Bokuto starts, and Kuroo can hear the smirk and large grin on Bokuto's face. "I heard Akaash asked you out today,"

"Bro, I literally texted you about it."

"Beside the point! Anyways, I think he's asking you out."

"You just said that's what he did-"

"Bro! You know what I mean!" Kuroo gives a small hum in reply.

"Bro, I think he likes you. 'Cause not only did he _not_ invite me to it, he asked you at 6am."

Kuroo purrs, "Finally, seems like my charm and pick up puns are working,"

"You should get him flowers, bro."

"What? Why? Isn't that too much for a second date?"

"Fuck no! Dude, bro, listen, it doesn't seem like it but Akaashi's a damn _slut_ for romance. I've been to his room. I've seen his bookshelf. He reads romance novels like, 90% of the time."

"How the fuck do you know they were romance novels?"

"Bro, they had titles like "hunky chunky love" and shit like that. Y'know, like Billy Ray Cyrus _"Achy Breakey Heart"_ level cheese."

"Fair point. So, flowers. Anything else to suggest?"

"Uhhh….." Bokuto goes silent for a moment. "Yeah, not really, just flowers and pick up lines and soon his mouth will be all over your dick." 

"Bro, why do you say that as if it isn't already?"

"I meant it literally! Anyways, go call Akaashi and make some gay plans. I'll do you a bro favor from the bro-ttom of my bro heart and bro-order you some browlers."

"Browlers?"

"Bro flowers!"

"Don't give me broflowers, I'm going on a gay date, not a bro date, bro."

"…True, ok flowers. You get my point. Go get dick, bro."

"You know it, bro."

"Later, bro."

"Later."

After that call, Kuroo sat up and hunched over his phone, scrolling through his contact list for Akaashi's nick name in his contacts list. For some reason, it was hard to find at first, even when the damn name started with the letter "A". After finding it, and almost pressing the little phone icon to call the number, his phone lights up, vibrates, and a soft piano melody chimes through his phone's speakers. The name on the screen is Angel Eyes, just the person he was about to call. He's so damn thankful he chose that as Akaashi's ringtone, as if it were anything louder, he'd be fucking dead by now.

He slides his finger across and answers the call.  
  
"Hey, Angel Eyes," Kuroo hums in greeting.

"Hello, Kuroo-san."  
  
"Why'd you call? Wanted to hear my voice again?"  
  
Akaashi hesitates to reply, and Kuroo hears it. He grins. "… I wanted to talk about our study plans,"

"What do you want to talk about, beautiful?"

"Uhm.. Would you like to have it at the library, Kuroo-san?"

"I wouldn't mind,"  
  
"Are you ok with Bokuto not being there, as well?" Kuroo rose an eyebrow, but it wasn't like Akaashi could see him doing it.

"Last time went fantastic, Angel eyes, so it's fine."

"Ok. That’s all I wanted to talk about."

Kuroo hums softly, and then a small silence builds between them. Kuroo wonders if Akaashi is playing with the sleeve of his shirt or sweater, as he saw him do it the last time the two of them had a study date. He did it when he was thinking of something to say, Kuroo had noticed.  
  
"...It was nice talking to you again, Kuroo. I'll see you tomorrow,"  
  
Kuroo's eyes widen and he doesn't reply immediately. He was surprised to hear that come out of Akaashi's mouth, plus the fact that Akaashi dropped the _-"san"_ after his name for the first time. Kuroo's heart felt like an arrow pierced through it.  
  
"Nice talking to you too, Angel eyes. See you tomorrow," Kuroo manages to reply, smoothly.

After a soft goodbye from Akaashi, the call ends. And after Kuroo stares at the contact information he has on Akaashi in his phone, his eyes boring holes into the nickname and the little details he put, he sighs, softly and happily, and goes to find Bokuto's contact. He finds it quickly, and calls his best bro up.  
  
"Bro, you will not _believe_ what just happened."

* * *

 

The day of the study date arrives unceremoniously for Akaashi. His alarm rings out a soft tune just abrasive enough to wake him, and at a relaxed pace he gets ready for the day. It's 9am; he has a few hours to till until its 12, so there's no real need to rush. For roughly half an hour, Akaashi merely lays in bed, scrolling through his phone for anything interesting as his body and mind both slowly wake up. Eventually, he pulls himself out of bed to take a quick shower.

Afterwards, he realizes the spare time is nice, as Akaashi notices that he needs it. He now stands at his closet, neatly arranged with his clothing by color, his eyes scanning among the clothes hanging up and neatly folded on wood shelves. For once, he's debating what he should wear. Hastily he tells himself it doesn't matter; really, it doesn’t, Kuroo wasn't going to be focusing on whether he wore a sweater or a button up. But still, the thoughts of looking nice never left him.

It took him longer than usual just to put on some damn clothes because of his new inner struggle. It was probably really stupid to spend 20 minutes constructing an outfit that isn't really anything special, but Akaashi felt he looked especially nice today, so he pushed those thoughts aside and went to make sure he had all his study materials before heading out the door with his messenger bag over his shoulder.

As he walked to the nearby library, he made a short detour at the café, where he ordered his usual pumpkin spiced latte and also got a muffin. He ate his muffin a little faster than he normally would before heading out once more, his latte still in hand and his hunger satiated for the time being. Occasionally he would take out his phone to reply quickly to a few texts, look at any recent news, or take pictures of the scenery, but for most of his walk, it was spent enjoying the comfort of crisp autumn weather.

Akaashi turned around a corner and began walking along a street that was lined with sidewalk and small businesses. Small cafés, art stores, general goods, even a cute little flower shop were along the street. Akaashi checks his watch; it was only 10:45am. After a minute of careful calculation he sees no harm in stopping by at the flower shop. It couldn't hurt, no not at all. He'd make it early to the library regardless, so it's no issue to Akaashi. So, he crosses the road over to the flower shop and walks in.

The wood door rings a pleasant bell, which cues the nice blonde girl behind the counter to chime out her own little melody of a greeting. Akaashi nods his head, and immediately after stepping in, hearing the bell, then the nice girl behind the counter, he hears something else. It's not the soft chime of one bell or the girl, but a low, almost purring voice laced with small panic. Akaashi immediately recognizes the voice as Kuroo, and before he can just stand there some more to think about why the fuck he's here, he sees him, and he's walking towards Akaashi.

Akaashi quickly  dashes to an aisle far from Kuroo and squats a little, now hidden among a _shit ton_ of lilac flowers. He can still hear Kuroo, who sounds like he's in a conversation with someone on the phone, as there isn't anyone else there besides the blonde girl and himself, and no one is speaking but him.

"--Are you sure I should go with roses? Don't you think they’re… I dunno.. In your face? Basic?" Kuroo says, and Akaashi scrunches his face. Why was Kuroo getting flowers? Was it for some girl he liked? Why was he doing it today, of all days?

There's a pause where the other person replies, and Kuroo sighs. Akaashi can hear his footsteps as he walks through the aisles of the flowers.

"Bro--" Kuroo starts, but is cut off. "Bro--" He tries again. "BRO. Please, I just wanna be a little more… lowkey. It's weird to be carrying a bouquet period to a place--" He's cut off once more, and Akaashi has a feeling he's talking to Bokuto.

"Ok, fine, I'll get a bouquet, but no fucking crazy big ass flowers. I don't think he likes a big display of shit either."

Akaashi's eyebrow raises in curiosity. It's a he? He's not surprised on a large scale, but now that he thinks about it, Kuroo does seem the time to play for both teams. Still, it's odd that he's doing this--

Akaashi is pulled from his thoughts midway by a timid tap to his shoulder. He looks to where the tapping came from, and next to him is the blonde girl from behind the counter. From this proximity he can see that she looks really young and rather cute, in a childish sort of way. Some of her hair is tied up in a little ponytail on the side of her head, tied off with a hair tie that has hearts along the band. Her face looks extremely nervous, and Akaashi isn't sure why. He stands up straight a little, but not enough to reveal him from among the lilacs. Thank God this girl is short, because crouching a little wouldn't be this acceptable otherwise.

"U-uhm, excuse me? Sir? Why are you crouching in the lilacs?" She asks, her voice shakey at first but she slowly gains confidence in her words. Her nervousness is still laced in her words, however.

Akaashi's mind goes blank. There's really no way out of this situation without lying terribly or telling the real bad story of the truth. There was no way Akaashi could get out of this without sounding ridiculous and stupid. Slowly Akaashi starts to panic, as this amount of silence is becoming too long, and too much.

"I like lilacs," He says quickly, blurting it out a bit louder than he'd like. He winces slightly, and tries to hear if there's a stall in whatever Kuroo is saying; there isn't. Akaashi sighs in quiet relief.

"O-ok… please don't… _steal_ them, sir." She says, clearly coming up with her words right then and there, sounding unsure of herself. _Oh God, I've fucked up,_  Akaashi thinks to himself.  
  
"Sorry, I'll just… head out. Thank you." Akaashi says, hopefully reassuring the girl that he won't do anything harmful to the store or her by just leaving the damn place. She nods in reply and then scurries off like a little mouse, back to behind the counter. Akaashi feels her eyes on him. With slight disappointment, Akaashi manages to leave the store without gaining the attention of Kuroo, who is busy poking at some daisies at the other side of the store, still in heated discussion with Bokuto on the phone.

After leaving the store, Akaashi lets out a soft breath before he realizes how creepy and nosy he had been. It was really inappropriate of him to eavesdrop on Kuroo, especially about something he clearly didn't need to know about. So what if Kuroo was buying flowers? Who cares who it was for and why? If Kuroo ever wants to tell him about it, that's how Akaashi will know then. Till then, he won't know shit just like he should.

Akaashi continued on his walk to the library, doing his best to forget about what just happened. What the fuck was Akaashi thinking?

* * *

Akaashi reached the library with little less than an hour to spare. Considering he walked a bit slow and leisurely, he was surprised he got there with still some time to himself. However, he realized that he probably had more time than he thought because he barely spent any time at the damn flower shop being a snoop. _Whatever,_ Akaashi thinks to himself.

The library is it's usual business; its not packed by any means nor is it empty, either. Students, mostly, it appears are scattered around the large library, some doing book research, some reading, some on computers. There's that comfortable silence hanging around the area, and Akaashi remembers once more why he loves this place.

He walks through the aisles of shelves of books to busy himself, looking for any books  that seem interesting for casual reading later. He hasn't visited this library in well over a month, and it's been a while since he last read a book for a mere want to read. So he drifts his way through the shelves, mostly picking up books by book title and cover in specific genre sections of the library. Surprisingly, Akaashi kills a lot of time by doing this. The next time he checks his watch, it's nearly noon. Deciding to check out one of the books he found, he goes to the front desk and checks the book out and puts it away within his bag. He thanks the kind lady at the counter, before going and finding a relatively empty area for study where he and Kuroo can talk quietly and not bother really anyone. He finds one, a bit far from the entrance but perfectly barren. There's one person roaming the shelves, but otherwise its devoid of people. He chooses a table and sits down, setting his bag down in a chair and he pulls out his phone. He sees he has a message from Kuroo, sent roughly five minutes ago and then another one, right that moment, just sent.

 **From: Kuroo-San**  
hey im rlly close meet me outside the library

 **From: Kuroo-San**  
im outside angel eyes ;)

Akaashi raises an eyebrow at the texts. It's odd to want to meet up outside the building, but if it's what Kuroo wants, Akaashi doesn't mind. He types out his reply quickly, before getting up and putting his bag back over his shoulder and heading out to the entrance of the library.

 **To: Kuroo-San**  
I'm already inside, but I'm coming out now.

It doesn't take long for Akaashi to exit the building and find Kuroo. Though, immediately when he sees Kuroo, he feels a pang of guilt for what he did earlier, and briefly considers running away, though decides against it, as _its fucking rude._

Kuroo's back is first facing Akaashi as he walks up, and it looks like his head is downward, looking at his phone, probably. Soon, though, Akaashi's feet softly tapping on the ground cues Kuroo in and he turns around. Akaashi sees, in a flash of brief color, something quickly shoved to behind his back with one arm before Kuroo greets Akaashi with a big grin. Akaashi doesn't have too much time to think about whatever that was before Kuroo starts to speak.  
  
"Heeeey, Angel eyes," He says, and Akaashi merely nods in reply with a soft hum.  
  
"Why did you want to meet up outside, Kuroo-san?" Akaashi asks, his head tilting to the side slightly.

Kuroo seems slightly taken aback by the question, as his eyebrows raise a little but his surprise fades.

"I thought you were done with calling me Kuroo-san," Kuroo notices, evading the question.

"It was a one time thing," Akaashi easily replies. Kuroo frowns, playfully.

"I hope what we are isn't a one time thing," Kuroo quickly recovers, winking. Akaashi turns his head away, huffing softly. Red tints his cheeks.

Kuroo then quietly clears his throat, and when Akaashi turns his head, Kuroo has a small bouquet of red tulips in his hands, and the gentlest grin on his face. There's the slightest peppering of red on his cheeks too, and before Akaashi can say a word, he realizes everything, and his face explodes into red. From the tips of his ears to the apples of his cheeks, they're all a deep red. His face matches the colors of the tulips, and it makes everything worse. 

In that moment, everything connects together. Kuroo was talking to Bokuto about what flowers he should get Akaashi.

Akaashi was the boy the flowers were going to be given to.

When he wanted to meet Akaashi outside, it was because its probably a more romantic setting for…

Akaashi's eyes meet Kuroo's, and there's not one ounce of smugness in them. Akaashi's eyes are wide and his mouth is slightly agape with disbelief.

Kuroo finally speaks.

"Angel eyes… I'm pretty sure my flirting made it obvious, but.." It looks like Kuroo wants to break eye contact, due to a sudden nervousness swirling in them, but he keeps the eye contact. He holds out the red tulips.

"Akaashi, do you want to go on a date with me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i want a hot boy to buy me some browlers :(  
> also props to u if u understand some hidden symbolism in the flower shop scene ;)  
> also sorry for switching pov halfway thru, i started with akaashi pov and i was like hey yknow whats poetic? ending it on akaashi pov so there u have it

**Author's Note:**

> the bro puns were so much fun to write


End file.
